PUPILS do not cycle to Merseyside schools because the bike racks are “woefully inadequate”, a committee of MPs has heard.

Merseyside’s Travelwise co-ordinator said that even schools awarded grants to make life easier for cyclists had failed to put in bike sheds.

Sarah Dewar also warned that attempts to boost walking and cycling to school were jeopardised by the drying-up of funding for “school travel advisers” in just two years’ time.

And she called for urgent action to ensure all the new schools being built across Merseyside were designed for walkers and cyclists.

Giving evidence to the Commons transport committee, Ms Dewar said: “Even where schools have received grants, there is not enough cycle parking to achieve the level of cycling that we want to achieve in schools.”

The Merseyside Local Transport Plan (LTP) partnership was asked to give evidence to the committee’s inquiry into school travel because of its record in encouraging parents to leave their cars at home.

Bringing together Merseyside’s councils, it boasts Britain’s biggest cycle training programme, working with more than 4,500 school children in 12 months.